Most people find motivation to perform well in school based upon social pressures whether it be from family being disappointed or feeling inferior to classmates. It all stems from the belief of being an active member of a community that is working together to better the world in which we live. This belief also revolves around the idea that more money makes for a happier life. In order to achieve this idea of a “happier life” an individual must do well in school academics to work at a high paying job. I, however, aside from my teachers that motivated me to do well in school, did not feel exactly the same way growing up and instead just kept my ability to naturally be interested in everything around me.
Children are naturally interested in everything once they can begin to see and are until they learn the basic concepts of how the world operates. I almost always spent my childhood outside questioning everything. I would ask my mother why leaves fall off trees in the winter and how does the sky make noise. This behavior is natural until the child hits preteen years and what begins to take a large part of the brain’s curiosity is other people, which is not necessarily bad but they pay less attention to the world around them. I was not particularly concerned about others and found myself questioning everything. I wanted to learn more so I could understand how everything works and operates.
The mentality that I wanted to learn as opposed to do better because of social pressures became evident by the end of my elementary education. My first few years of elementary school, I was not aware that all the assignments I handed in were being assessed on how well I was grasping a certain concept. I just knew I wanted to do well on the small tasks assigned to us and learn. It was not until my first parent-teacher conference that I understood a basic grading system. My teacher told me that I was doing well in all of my classes except for math in which I had a C+. All I knew at the time was that an A was good and was upset when I heard the news since I thought math was my best subject. Of course, society implemented into my brain that an A is good and anything less is bad but it was not about the letter grade. What I knew was that I was doing something wrong and I wanted to improve. Thus, I became especially attentive during math portions of school so I could figure out what I was doing wrong.
The drive that I wanted to learn stayed with me as I tried to incorporate it in everything I did. I knew that in order to learn more reading was essential. I was always excited to pick up different books from the library especially ones that made me exercise my imagination. As my interest in reading books grew, so did my curiosity in other subjects. I found myself actually intrigued by material I was learning in class and even stayed after school to try to help one of my friends who was falling behind because I wanted him to learn too. I even began watching television networks such as Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic which the show “Mythbusters” became a favorite of mine because I learned that not everything is true.
My parents or family never particularly motivated me to do well and neither did my performance compared with my classmates. My parents did care about me doing well in school but it was not much more than telling me I should be doing my homework or that I should get my grade up. Of course how well my peers were doing has crossed my mind but it was never really about others for me, it was about self-improvement. No one ever told me that my grades would be a vital role in my future. I did well academically because I loved to learn. I motivated myself to want to do better in school, by learning as much as I could. I saw my grades as how much I know, rather than how well I could take a test.
I was not worried about my academic standings until after my freshmen year of high school I knew society based how intelligent you are off of grades and would eventually determine how adequate my higher level education was. Yet, I discovered that you can still have be fascinated in learning and receive what society thinks of as good grades. I knew that balancing exercising, reading, practicing my instrument and maintaining a healthy body was extremely important in keeping an expanding mind. Socializing with friends that knew how to have fun but also have intellectually stimulating conversations with was important to me since I loved learning about other viewpoints on certain subjects and learning from others.
Individuals usually let social pressures determine their drive for academic achievement positively rather than their own ambition to learn. I did not have the pressures of my family telling me or wanting me to do well nor needed a specific academic standing so I could keep playing a certain sport (simply because I did not participate on a team). I devoted myself to learning and since my extra time was spent after school rehearsing in ensembles, I did not have another source of motivation to do well other than myself. My natural interest in learning fortunately stayed with me and made me understand that academics are not everything but do hold an essential role in success in the world. I do conform to society’s belief that everyone must benefit the community as a whole. By doing that, I am becoming a music teacher so that students can understand the importance that music has in every day life while sharing the beautiful mystery of music, not revolving myself around the idea that having a higher paying job is directly connected with a happier life.
Children are naturally interested in everything once they can begin to see and are until they learn the basic concepts of how the world operates. I almost always spent my childhood outside questioning everything. I would ask my mother why leaves fall off trees in the winter and how does the sky make noise. This behavior is natural until the child hits preteen years and what begins to take a large part of the brain’s curiosity is other people, which is not necessarily bad but they pay less attention to the world around them. I was not particularly concerned about others and found myself questioning everything. I wanted to learn more so I could understand how everything works and operates.
The mentality that I wanted to learn as opposed to do better because of social pressures became evident by the end of my elementary education. My first few years of elementary school, I was not aware that all the assignments I handed in were being assessed on how well I was grasping a certain concept. I just knew I wanted to do well on the small tasks assigned to us and learn. It was not until my first parent-teacher conference that I understood a basic grading system. My teacher told me that I was doing well in all of my classes except for math in which I had a C+. All I knew at the time was that an A was good and was upset when I heard the news since I thought math was my best subject. Of course, society implemented into my brain that an A is good and anything less is bad but it was not about the letter grade. What I knew was that I was doing something wrong and I wanted to improve. Thus, I became especially attentive during math portions of school so I could figure out what I was doing wrong.
The drive that I wanted to learn stayed with me as I tried to incorporate it in everything I did. I knew that in order to learn more reading was essential. I was always excited to pick up different books from the library especially ones that made me exercise my imagination. As my interest in reading books grew, so did my curiosity in other subjects. I found myself actually intrigued by material I was learning in class and even stayed after school to try to help one of my friends who was falling behind because I wanted him to learn too. I even began watching television networks such as Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic which the show “Mythbusters” became a favorite of mine because I learned that not everything is true.
My parents or family never particularly motivated me to do well and neither did my performance compared with my classmates. My parents did care about me doing well in school but it was not much more than telling me I should be doing my homework or that I should get my grade up. Of course how well my peers were doing has crossed my mind but it was never really about others for me, it was about self-improvement. No one ever told me that my grades would be a vital role in my future. I did well academically because I loved to learn. I motivated myself to want to do better in school, by learning as much as I could. I saw my grades as how much I know, rather than how well I could take a test.
I was not worried about my academic standings until after my freshmen year of high school I knew society based how intelligent you are off of grades and would eventually determine how adequate my higher level education was. Yet, I discovered that you can still have be fascinated in learning and receive what society thinks of as good grades. I knew that balancing exercising, reading, practicing my instrument and maintaining a healthy body was extremely important in keeping an expanding mind. Socializing with friends that knew how to have fun but also have intellectually stimulating conversations with was important to me since I loved learning about other viewpoints on certain subjects and learning from others.
Individuals usually let social pressures determine their drive for academic achievement positively rather than their own ambition to learn. I did not have the pressures of my family telling me or wanting me to do well nor needed a specific academic standing so I could keep playing a certain sport (simply because I did not participate on a team). I devoted myself to learning and since my extra time was spent after school rehearsing in ensembles, I did not have another source of motivation to do well other than myself. My natural interest in learning fortunately stayed with me and made me understand that academics are not everything but do hold an essential role in success in the world. I do conform to society’s belief that everyone must benefit the community as a whole. By doing that, I am becoming a music teacher so that students can understand the importance that music has in every day life while sharing the beautiful mystery of music, not revolving myself around the idea that having a higher paying job is directly connected with a happier life.